JUDGE LIFTS CALIFORNIA BAN ON IQ TESTS FOR BLACK CHILDREN

Abstract

A federal judge in San Francisco ruled that any parent can arrange for the use of IQ testing in assessing students' learning disabilities, despite arguments that the tests discriminate against minorities. Judge Robert F. Peckham issued a summary judgment ruling in favor of the families of nine black schoolchildren in California. The families were challenging the constitutionality of a statewide ban on the use of standardized intelligence tests for black children in California special-education classes. The state Department of Education in 1986 banned the use of IQ tests for assessing black students, but the ban did not apply to students from other minority groups. Later, black students seeking access to programs for gifted students were exempted from the tests as well.